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THE IE ADEB. [iETa. 335 » Saturday,
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THE REFORMATORY PAILLIAMENT. The people ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Autocratic Navies Versus The Republican ...
mission to protect private P ^ P ^ d ^ T ^ t than " Ame ^ cM citizens are likely to be . ThTre ^ TS Kff pirates at sea ; and jTff ^ T the Austrian buccaneers , who 3 £ T oTcbbLo ohio and his sons ; the Adrian thief who " sequestrated — the ^ sTconreyitcaU "—the piavate property of Piedmontese subjects ; the Neapolitan « ii « f who robs all his subjects at a blow by
debasing bis coin , and who keeps the bravest in mortal prison by help of Austrian complicity—and by help of French , and English passiveness . If the love of justice , the desire to protect property , and the reverence for human life and liberty animate Louis Na-POLEoasr and his assistants , French or English , there is an enterprise for them . Chivalrous enterprises are not to be accomp lished by jockeying tricks to deceive a great and free country into disarming itself .
The Ie Adeb. [Ieta. 335 » Saturday,
THE IE ADEB . [ iETa . 335 » Saturday ,
The Reformatory Pailliament. The People ...
THE REFORMATORY PAILLIAMENT . The people of this country , like that of America , usually bring any newly adopted principle into practice , and constitute it an established custom , before they can get the Legislature either to enact a positive law in such behalf , or to repeal the law which , obstructed the reform . If the local government fails , the notables of the Anglo-Saxon family take
the matter into their own hands , as they have done in San Francisco . " When , contrary to the law and spirit of the constitution , our Government decreed that transportation of convicts should be commenced to the Cape of Good Hope , the colonists formed a Committee of Safety , and assumed a position which compelled the Government to withdraw the convicts . In most cases at
home we are chary of taking this summary course ; yet we are scarcely less summary in point of fact . We have agitated the reform , of laws with respect to women ; one reform in particular has been pressed upon the Legislature with strong arguments , strong authority , and strong personal interest ; the House of Commons agrees , and the Lords alone stand out . We allude to the permission of a widower to marry his sisterin-law . But what has the community done ? In most cases where such a marriage is contemplated , the parties simply get themselves married ; the union is recognized by society , and Lord Lyndhubst ' s Act is repealed de facto , although the House of Lords refuses to give its affirmative vote . With respect to reformatories for juvenile offenders , the subject is one which gives rise to less controversy . We have there to deal principally with the vis inertice , —and a tremendous " vis is it . The facts are known
to most of us . Lord Stanle y tells us , m his inaugural speech at Bristol , that 11 , 500 children annually pass under tho operation of the criminal law : about 11 ^ per cent , of the whole ; while lads between the age of 17 and 21 , who are to the whole population as 10 per cent ., are to the criminal population as 25 per cent . There is , however , no special criminality at that ago , or in a more youthful age ; but tho drunkenness of parents , the
example of stealing , tho positive instructions to Bteal , the total neglect of education at home , and sometimes tho being positively turned out of doom to shift for life m the wide world , are , the cauBe * why those 11 , 500 children , those thpuBaaaa of youths , aro handed over to tho police magistrate , tho criminal judge , and the gaoler . Now , by the experience of all who have , had to do with reformatories , from , M . j > e Mbm , or STWNBr Tubnjbb to Mr .. Babwick BAraa or any other founder
of a more recent institution , it is well known that a large part of this criminal childhood , from 60 to 70 , or nearly 90 per cent , can be redeemed . From that single range of experience , it is evident that if so many ean be redeemed after they have become vicious , a still larger proportion could be prevented from ever falling into vice . This is the position that Lord Bbougham took up in the paper re ad at the Bristol meeting on Wednesday . Now all this is as plain as possible . Parliament itself is as perfectly familiar with the whole facts . It knows that it has
not to deal with theory ; but that there are more experiments than ever where required in any mechanical invention . A roving committee of the House could , in the course of a vacation , visit a number of reformatoriessome under Government , some not under Government—some so called , others bearing different titles—varying in their mode of management , and therefore in their results ;
but all illustrating exactly the same principle . It is quite useless to appeal to the constituencies . Constituencies , as such , have particular personal , political , or other crotchets concerned ; they lend themselves to local lawyers and other gentlemen who manage elections ; and any question of British law is rendered secondary hy every constituency in the country to some public dodge of the
day . What then do the British gentlemen do ? They begin by forming an association . They collect faets , and publish them in tracts , newspapers , lectures , speeches , conversation . They establish branch associations in Birmingham , Wakefield , Bristol , Gloucestershire , and Glasgow . Their members have already established reformatories , as a philanthropic experiment ; the reformatories become permanent ; others are formed ; and thus we have already established in this country by Englishmen the system of reformatory institutions for juvenile offenders .
The system , however , is of course very imperfect . In the first place , those who manage this new plan for the public can only obtain—from a Parliament vacillating between ancient prejudice , modern indifference , and ; he dread of responsibility—a small instalment of authority insufficient for all that should be done . At last , about two years ago , we obtained a law permitting youths to be detained in schools for a period of five years , with a payment from Government of 5 s . per that to
week towards that support ; payment be recoverable , if possible , from the parents . There ought , indeed , to be a public school for every district , anticipating the reformatory—preventing tho reformatory from being useful by drawing away its food . But if we are to establish a system of public education , tho founders of the reformatory Union have shown us the way to do it . We must first establish our public education ; and then Parliament will permit us to establish it ; perhaps assist , after the system is established , in developing it . In short , all theso great
reforms aro effected first of all by a Parliament out of doors , which understands the subject , and knows how to carry it forward . When that Parliament has done its duty , some Right Honourable member in tho House takes up the subject ; obtains that scries of affirmative votes which independent electors and Honourable House aro always ready to give to any crack parliamentary broker ; and tho work is finished . It is very troublesome for the British people to be obliged to get up a special Parliament for every new piece of work , but they must bo content to undorgo that trouble until they have rendered the main Parliament effective to do all the duties of the country .
PIOUS WHITEWASHING . Thebe is a danger attending all mature reforms—even philanthropy may degenerate into humbug . Florence Nightingale has executed her work from beginning to end as if it were a professional labour ; for spontaneous enthusiasm is quite capable of exertion as great and as effective as the best trained skill . The enthusiasm is catching ; there is a kind which is not spontaneous , but acquired ; the imitation sets going a fashion ; the fashion degenerates into simple mimicry ; its exaction is fulfilled only in form ; and by that time the enthusiasm has degenerated to absolute humbug .
We have lately seen a very warm laudation of a society whose object is unquestionably meritorious—we mean the Society for Improving the Dwellings of the Poor . It has been labouring in some of the most crowded and ill-conditioned neighbourhoods of the metropolis ; it has been followed by a large amount of newspaper laudation ; and what with the unquestionably meritorious purpose , the distinguished gentlemen who aro implicated in the project , and the union of high connexions with pious purposes , the Society has taken its rank as a great public benefactor by the simple force of courtesy . Who could call in question a set of gentlemen so
eminent , with such manifest sincerity , pur . suing a vocation like a missionary band , a collective good Samaritan , amongst the kennels of St . Giles ' s , and converting the most squalid into the most clean-looking abodes ? Now it is well for the leaders of the Society to know that the sterling character of these reforms is called in question , and we do feel ourselves compelled to ask , whether the Association really causes that regenerate state of society in low neighbourhoods , or whether it does not leave matters pretty much as they were , save only a certain artificial gleam of improvement , and the printed praise in the newspapers ?
We will take one of the districts in which the Society prides itself upon its reforms . It is true that the Broadway through St . Giles ' s , the direct route between the north of London and Charing-cross , is becoming more frequented by a respectable class , and is beginning to show that strange mixture between the old corruption and the invading spirit of improvement which can be seen in other parts of London . But this is not the work of the Society . That Society was to creato blessed oases of cleanliness amidst squalor ; and one place which wos to be improved was Clark ' s-buildings , Broad-street , St . Giles ' s . Tho reader who wishes to know
tho topography of this place may station himself in the Broadway of St . Giles ' s , where Endell-street and Bloomsbury-street unite ; if he will then walk towards Tottonhamcourt-road , lie will presently find both his senses of sight and smell painfully assailed by the emanations from the court or " Buildings . " Let him enter , if he has tho courage . Ho will find , indeed , a few respectable families , who havobeen drawn , perhaps , by tho report of reformation . Ho will also find a society of the least regenerate charactermen who are accustomed to the roughest port
of London ; girls , or young women rather , who belong to a class readily recognizod ; * uul boys in training for tho worst callings ot tho metropolis . The inhabitants of tho building look very much as if they must exceed in proportion tho number of dwellings ; » ml such we believe is the fact . It is said that there aro no fewer than twelve , if not thirteen persons of both sexes sleeping and living in ono single room . The Society has rules contrary to those practices ; but it i « ono thing to have rules , and anothor to havo tho rulea observed . Tho external character ot
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 23, 1856, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23081856/page/14/
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